Thomas A. Scott
Thomas A. Scott | |
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| Born | December 28, 1823 |
| Died | May 21, 1881 (aged 57) Darby, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Resting place | The Woodlands Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Railroad executive, politician |
| Years active | 1850s–1880s |
| Known for | 4th president of the Pennsylvania Railroad United States Assistant Secretary of War Compromise of 1877 |
| Spouse | Ann Dike Riddle (m.1861) |
| Children | 3 |
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Thomas Alexander Scott (December 28, 1823 – May 21, 1881) was an American businessman, railroad executive, and industrialist. In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him to serve as U.S. Assistant Secretary of War, and during the American Civil War railroads under his leadership played a major role in the war effort. He became the fourth president of the Pennsylvania Railroad (1874–1880), which became the largest publicly traded corporation in the world and received much criticism for his conduct in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and as a "robber baron." Scott helped negotiate the Republican Party's Compromise of 1877 with the Democratic Party; it settled the disputed presidential election of 1876 in favor of Rutherford B. Hayes in exchange for the federal government pulling out its military forces from the South and ending the Reconstruction era. In his final years, Scott made large donations to the University of Pennsylvania.
Early life
Scott was born on December 28, 1823, in Peters Township near Fort Loudoun, in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. He was the 7th of eleven children.[1]
Career
Railroads
Scott joined the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1850 as a station agent, and by 1858 was general superintendent. Scott had been recommended for promotion by Herman Haupt and later took a special interest in mentoring aspiring railroad employees, such as Andrew Carnegie (who joined the Pittsburgh telegraph office at age 16 and became Scott's private secretary and telegrapher).
The 1846 state charter to the Pennsylvania Railroad diffused power within the company, by giving executive authority to a committee responsible to stockholders, and not to individuals. By the 1870s, however, officers directed by
Historians have explained the successful partnership of Thomas Scott and
By 1860, when Scott became the first Vice President of the Pennsylvania Railroad, it had expanded from a company of railway lines within Pennsylvania through the 1840s and 1850s, to a transportation empire (which it would continue to expand under his guidance from the 1860s onward).[2]
Civil War
After the election of Abraham Lincoln, Scott was one of number of railroad men who coordinated a special train for him through the Northern states prior to his inauguration. Scott advised President Lincoln to travel covertly by rail to avoid Confederate spies and assassins.[4]
At the outburst of the
Later on, Scott took on the task of equipping a substantial military force for the Union war effort.[4] He assumed supervision of government railroads and other transportation lines. He made the movement of supplies and troops more efficient and effective for the war effort on behalf of the Union. In one instance, he engineered the movement of 25,000 troops in 24 hours from Nashville, Tennessee, to Chattanooga, turning the tide of battle to a Union victory.[6]
Reconstruction era
Scott invested in oil exploration around the
During the
In his "Scott Plan" of the later 1870s, Scott proposed that the largely Democratic Southern politicians would give their votes in Congress and state legislatures for federal government subsidies to various infrastructure improvements, including in particular the
Great Railroad Strike of 1877
Despite Scott's best efforts, the Pennsylvania Railroad continued to lose money through the 1870s. Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller had shifted much of his transportation of product for Standard Oil to his pipelines, causing severe problems for the rail industry. Scott still controlled the railway to Pittsburgh, where the pipelines of Rockefeller did not extend, but the two men were unable to come to terms on transportation costs. In response, Rockefeller closed his plants in Pittsburgh, forcing Scott to enact aggressive pay deductions of workers.[9]
In reaction, railroad workers went off the job and rioted in Pittsburgh; the city was the epicenter of the worst violence in the nation during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Scott, often referred to as one of the first robber barons of the Gilded Age, was quoted as saying that the strikers should be given "a rifle diet for a few days and see how they like that kind of bread."[10] According to historian Heather Cox Richardson, Scott convinced President Hayes to use federal troops to end the strike, providing motivation for the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.[11]
Death and legacy
Like his counterpart
The railroad-based economy of the United States was overtaken by the oil boom. Scott's protege
- Thomas A. Scott Fellowship in Hygiene
- Thomas A. Scott Professorship of Mathematics
- University Hospital: endowed beds for patients with chronic diseases.
See also
References
- ^ a b Kamm (1940), p. 3.
- ^ a b c Ward (1975).
- ^ a b c Ward (1976).
- ^ a b c d e Kamm (1940).
- ^ George B. Abdill, Civil War Railroads: A Pictorial Story of the War Between the States, 1861–1865, (Indiana University Press 1961) p. 34
- ^ Pickenpaugh (1998).
- ^ Nelson, Mike (2020). "The Hunt for California Crude". AAPG Explorer. 41 (2): 18. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
- ^ Woodward (1956).
- ^ a b David (2012).
- ^ Ingham (1983).
- ^ Radio Boston: Week In Review
- ^ Woodlands Cemetery
- ISBN 9780813030197.
- ^ Nitzsche (1918), p. 155.
Bibliography
- David, Stephen (2012). The Men Who Built America (DVD). The History Channel.
- Ingham, John N. (1983). Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders: N-U. Greenwood Press.
- Kamm, Samuel Richey (1940). The Civil War Career of Thomas A. Scott. University of Pennsylvania.
- Nitzsche, George Erasmus (1918). University of Pennsylvania: Its History, Traditions, Buildings and Memorials; Also a Brief Guide to Philadelphia (7th ed.). Philadelphia: International Printing Company. OCLC 65488397.
- Pickenpaugh, Roger (1998). Rescue by Rail: Troop Transfer and the Civil War in the West, 1863. University of Nebraska Press.
- Ward, James A. (Spring 1975). "Power and Accountability on the Pennsylvania Railroad, 1846–1878". Business History Review. 49 (1): 37–59. S2CID 155491864.
- Ward, James A. (January 1976). "J. Edgar Thomson And Thomas A. Scott: A Symbiotic Partnership?". Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 100 (1): 37–65.
- Woodward, C. Vann (1956). Reunion and Reaction: The Compromise of 1877 and the End of Reconstruction.
External links
- Richard White, "Corporations, Corruption, and the Modern Lobby: A Gilded Age Story of the West and the South in Washington, D.C.", Southern Spaces (April 2009).
- Ted Nace, Gangs of America — Chapter 6, "The genius: The man who reinvented the corporation (1850–1880)"
- Furman.edu: "Re-Assessing Tom Scott, the 'Railroad Prince' "
- Ranknfile-ue.org: The Great Strike of 1877: Remembering a Worker Rebellion
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